In baseball, the name “Bob” has gone from extremely common to a marginal curiosity and nexus of confusion.

There was one active MLB Bob last year, Bobby Abreu, whose given name is “Bob” but goes by “Bobby”. In 2010 there were two - Abreu, and Bob Howry, whose given name is “Bobby” but goes by “Bob”. In 2009 we also had Bob McCrory.

In the future, will “Bob” be as unheard-of for baseball players as “Dick”? Can Bob Stumpo restore glory to this appellation? ...Read More...

Want to out that fantasy app you’ve been developing in your mom’s basement out there? Now’s your chance:

CBS Corp., in a move aimed at boosting its share of the nearly billion-dollar fantasy-sports business, is opening up its CBS Sports website so outside developers can create apps geared toward fantasy enthusiasts.

Murray Sez… have a Bud and a Jack chaser

When I left The New York Times in 2008 after having written for the newspaper for 39 years, the first offer I received to continue writing came from a high-ranking Major League Baseball official who was in position to offer me a job as a columnist with MLB.com. My initial reaction was to say no, but some people urged me to reconsider and at least talk about and consider that possibility.

Accepting that offer would have turned out to be more ...

Billy Beane should have never written this comic strip.

32. Cliff Lee declines to run out his own grounder

I’m a firm opponent of the designated hitter rule, because just as I love to watch a punter try to scoop up a bad snap and try to throw it, or see a 7’1” center with no range try to chuck up a last-second three, I love watching pitchers hit.

Never will I come closer to seeing what it would be like if someone with my skill set tried to perform on a professional level. I mean, how nuts is this: in the National League, five to 10 percent of ...

Well…it’s about freakin’ time Seymour Siwoff watched Douglas Engelbart’s debut of the computer mouse video!

Some knew—many didn’t—but last year I applied for inclusion into the BBWAA. I spent a great deal of time combing through the Baseball Writers’ bylaws and constitution, and worked diligently to meet the criteria. Fulltime, paid write?,Check. Accredited with league? Check. Went to a good number of games? Check? LLC?… World Series?…. Winter Meetings and other jewel events?…. ...

CBS = The Boras Network?

Jon Heyman, who has been breaking baseball news at Sports Illustrated for the last five years, is leaving SI for CBS Sports, The Big Lead has learned.

Jason: Let’s debate.

Resolved: Albert Pujols is not 31 years old.

Rob: I’m not sure who you would debate with!

Jason: Well, let’s kick it around, anyway. I’ll argue the affirmative, and you play Devil’s Advocate. (Literally, Satan’s lawyer!) Okay?

Rob: Sure.

Before the trees were trees and the rocks were rocks, Albert was Albert.

Remember this girl?  Here’s the story.

It wasn’t exactly that he put a ring and tickets on the table and told me to pick one. We’ve been together for several years now and are pretty confident that marriage is in the cards, but he is definitely not in a hurry. Every once in a while, I’ll give him a hard time about it and he’s always quick to change the subject. A week or two before this game (I think we were still playing the Brewers) I brought it up again and he changed the subject to World ...

Everything is so much clearer now.

In Media Res is a weekly online publication about different roles media play in culture; they take up a different theme each week—this week is Mediating Baseball!

Mediating Baseball [October 24-28, 2011]

Monday October 24, 2011 – Elizabeth Rawitsch (University of East Anglia) presents: Melting Pot or Multiculturalism? Mediating Ethnicity in Baseball

Tuesday October 25, 2011 –  Pellom McDaniels III (University of Missouri-Kansas City) presents: “I is Unruffable”: Rereading African ...

Just a reminder that BTF’s IRC chat room is open for people who want to live chat during the playoffs.

Dan Werr’s directions after the break.

My freakin’ eyes!

The latest security breach came last night, when the Marlins’ new 2012 logo began circulating. At first it wasn’t clear whether it was legit or just some Photoshopper’s concept, but Uni Watch has confirmed that it is in fact the real deal. This is what the team will be wearing next year when it’s rebranded as the Miami Marlins.

Joe Sheehan:

I don’t get the hate for the new Marlins logo. It’ll fit right in with the rest of Major League Lacrosse.

...Read More...

Not sure how this has slipped past us.  It has a terrific webcast and solid agenda.

Alan Nathan and Greg Rybarczyk to name some names.

This presentation just went:
1:45 - 2:15 pm PITCHf/x as a Scouting Tool                   Hillary Suparak (Masters thesis at Emory Univ, I think she said).

It’s break time now, but coming up will be defensive analyses.

Guess Nails showed those women more than his nails:

More trouble for Lenny Dykstra—this time the troubled baseball great has been charged with indecent exposure for allegedly whipping out his dong for women he met on Craigslist.

According to the L.A. City Attorney, Lenny allegedly went to Craigslist and posted ads for a personal assistant or housekeeping services ... but when the women arrived, Dykstra would “inform the women that the job also required them to give a massage and would expose ...

It’s from fangraphs and I can’t get a cut and paste, but basically some kid call Bautista a slur, and Bautista tells the kid to stop hating, and that he’s a douche.

Speaking of Bautista, here’s something to smile about:

June 5, 2000: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Player signed May 19, 2001.
December 15, 2003: Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2003 rule 5 draft.
June 3, 2004: Selected off waivers by the Tampa ...

In praise of the two greatest teams in the universe, and the media explosion which allows the rest of us to ignore them.

People who complain about Red Sox/Yankees games are my new pet peeve:

Oh, great, look: the front page of ESPN.com is all Yankees and Red Sox.

Of course MLB Network is showing Yankees/Red Sox. I wanted to watch [other game].

Yeah, went to read some stories about Craig Counsell’s hitless streak, but everything is all Boston this and New York that. Totally annoying.

The ...

Starting Tuesday, Aug. 2, any Rogers customer can catch live streamed Rogers Sportsnet coverage of every pitch, hit and home run of the remainder of the 2011 Blue Jays regular season games anywhere they want through Rogers On Demand Online and on their smartphones with Rogers On Demand Mobile.

This is basically an advertisement, but does any other team offer free streaming of games to customers in their mlb.tv blackout zone?  As a Jays fan, this is awesome.